Can't We All Just Get Along?
by GaruAlpha
Summary: A dimensional traveler makes a detour to a certain Time Lord's domain who has an offer for him that he just can't resist.
1. Beginning of a Beautiful Partnership

There exists a glowing green world where gravity seems to have no hold on the matter inside of it. Inside of this realm known as the Ghost Zone exists the realm of a ghost named Clockwork. His home was a large clock tower that stands out against the bleak background of the Ghost Zone. Normally no other beings trespass near this area, but today was slightly different.

A jagged edged portal full of static opened up in the midst of the swirling energies of the Ghost Zone near the doors to the clock tower. From inside of it stepped a wolf-like man that had a look of apprehension on his face as he looked around. Once the last of his body left the portal, it immediately closed behind him. He looked around, almost unconcerned with the fact that he couldn't feel the ground. Looking around, he couldn't help but wonder why he wasn't falling and where he was. Stupid Q, not telling him how to get to a specific location instead of just bouncing around from dimension to dimension.

After a moment he figured out how to move around, which apparently only consisted of willing oneself in the direction they wanted to go, he moved towards the two large doors to the clock tower, hoping somebody would be inside willing to help.

Once he had opened the doors, he poked his head in and asked, "Hello, is anybody home?"

"Please, come in, and feel free to return to your more human form if you wish," a voice said from the back of the main entrance.

The wolfman did just that and transformed to his human state, honestly feeling a little bit warm with the fur covering his body. Once inside, the doors ominously shut themselves behind him as he, now walking, advanced towards the voice. He saw "sitting" at a table set for two, a ghostly figure that seemingly couldn't decide if it was a man in his prime, an older man, or a child. "So, who are you then, ominous man-child...ghost...thing... Yeah, there was a witty quip in there somewhere but I lost it along the line," the now normal looking man said. He stood at about six feet tall with brown hair and an athletic yet disheveled look to him.

"Well, while it is polite to first introduce one's self, John, I think we can let it slip this one time, don't you? My name is Clockwork, the Master of Time and the domain you are in. To answer your next two questions, this is the Ghost Zone, the realm where this dimension's ghosts reside and yes, I do enjoy preempting your questions by using my mastery and knowledge of time."

John had a very unamused look on his face as he glared at the self-proclaimed Master of Time and just _knew_ it was going to be one of _those_ dimensions. "Alright, cut to the chase, masters of time don't interact with others unless they want something. So get to it, what do you want done that you aren't allowed to directly interfere with?" John then sat down and helped himself to some of the burger that Clockwork had procured for him in advance. Being a super that deals with higher beings on a regular basis gives one a good idea of what they want, how they act, and more importantly, of when it is fine to eat the food offered to you.

Clockwork smirked at the cocky and immature attitude the Garu in front of him had adapted once he knew that he wasn't in trouble in the immediate future. His dismissal of the favor made it clear that he didn't care about it in the slightest and gave him an edge in the haggling of said favor. Too bad for John, the time lord didn't have time for his games. "Simple, there is a pair of individuals, Vlad Masters and Daniel Fenton. They are immensely important to the time line. I want you to resolve their issues and bring it to a close so that time may progress as it should. In return, I shall make sure that the next time you dimension hop, you end at your intended target."

John stiffened at the offer before finishing the food in his mouth and holding out his hand for a shake. "You have yourself a deal there, Clockwork." He stood up and stretched up before looking back to the spirit and saying, "Would you please show the way?"

Clockwork floated towards the doors of his tower and said, "This way, Mr. Varggrimr."

An almost feral grin spread on John's face before he said, "Please, call me Alpha when I am on the job."


	2. Egotistical Billionaires

Alpha stepped out of a portal into Vlad's recently demolished laboratory. He looked back towards the portal that Clockwork had brought him here through to see that it had closed behind him. He took a deep breath and prepared himself to complete the task that the Master of Time had assigned him. He, at this point, became aware a person speaking to themselves. Quickly, so as not to be seen, he hid behind a pile of wreckage.

"Curse that blasted boy!_ I can't believe he destroyed my perfect clone!_ It was perfect! All it was missing was that mid-morph DNA. How could he? 

"And my Maddie program! My Maddie hologram loved me! She praised me, thought I was wonderful… 

"Damn them all!" 

Alpha thought to himself, _"This guy was desperate enough for love to take it from a hologram?"_

The ranting man scaled back for a moment to think.

"None of this would have been necessary, of course, if he just would have seen that I am so much better for him. No, that… that… stubborn boy _refuses_ to see what an idiot Jack Fenton is. I could have shown him everything. I would have taught him everything I know. Well… Maybe not _everything_… 

"That blasted girl was a mistake. Just like the other three. She was just as worthless, and now, she has gone down in value: now, she isn't just an accident in my lab, but now she is an ally of that blasted boy. Daniel! 

"_Lab accident? How did he pull that one off?"_

"WHY can't they see that I'm far better for them? Blast it all – I even _told_ the boy that all I wanted was love. Why can't he see that? Why can't they see that? 

"_If you just want love, what's wrong with your 'lab accident' dumb ass."_

"I would have been better for them. That blasted idiot Jack is a danger to all he surveys. But I am brilliant. I am wealthy. I'm successful in every way. Except… I can't make Maddie and Daniel love me. Why can't I have them? What is wrong? Why?"

"_Hmm, this guys a mess. Should I go with a sympathetic 'shoulder to cry on' approach, or with the 'pull yourself together' approach? Well, I don't like him, so lets make him mad and angry; it's what I am good at." _Alpha thought to himself.

Alpha walked around the corner with his hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face. Once Vlad noticed him, Alpha said in a condescending tone, "Dude, you are pathetic."

Vlad turned to the interloper with his eyes burning with anger and yelled, "Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?"

Alpha ignored the first part of the question and responded, "I am looking at the pitiful shell of a man that needs to pull himself together and grow up."

"Excuse me!" Vlad demanded. _"Who does this human thinks he is to talk to me like that?"_

"Oh, don't tell me you are going deaf, now, too. That's just what you need, to be a sniveling coward, unwilling to face the world, that can't hear."

Vlad sneered and thought to himself, _"This buffoon doesn't know who he is talking to. He will pay for such insolence." _Then said out loud."I will have you know that I am a self-made billionaire. I am no coward."

"All that means to me is that you hide behind money to cover up your own shortcomings," Alpha said as he rolled his eyes.

"What short comings! How would you even know?" He asked, anger growing. _"How dare he come into my house and act like this? As soon as I get some answers, I am going to make sure that this man never sees the light of day again."_

"You are too stuck on an old sweetheart, for one." Alpha responded.

Vlad reeled back for a moment almost as if Alpha had physically struck him and asked himself, _"How could he know about Maddie? He wouldn't have told anybody except for his sister and insufferable friends. But if that is the case, how does this man know?" _Back in reality he then asked, "How would you know? Once, I was a normal college student who lost years of his life to a crippling disease and despite it came back and made a name for himself! Unlike some idiots who come out of college full of dreams and amount to nothing," Vlad said, a specific idiot in mind.

Alpha scoffed mentally at how sure of himself Vlad was. "Do you know what those idiots have that you couldn't have no matter how much money you ever make?" Alpha asked him, letting him dig his own grave.

"What would that be?" Vlad asked, anger still rising in his voice.

A small smirk on his face, Alpha answered, "Well, as cliché as it is, love and happiness. Look at you, you have built a laboratory with technology that could have benefited man kind, but instead you used it to try and get those two things and you failed," as he gestured around the room. "You have no friends, do you? Instead you spend your time trying to create your own perfect little world, instead of living in the real world. The boy isn't going to accept you like you want him to, and the woman was never yours. Grow up and get over it, you crazed-up Froot-Loop."

Vlad, at this point, had enough of the insolent fool in front of him and attempted to transform and attack him, wiping him off the face of the earth. As he tried to transform though, the Specter Deflector TM was on his waist and Vlad was rewarded with a shock of debilitating pain running through his body until he fell back to the floor, smoking and unconscious.

Alpha quirked an eyebrow at the man who had just, for lack of a better term, had a seizure in front of him and waited for him to cease, assuming that the device that was shooting sparks off of him was the reason that he was in such great pain and moaning on the ground, but wondering what the two rings that had started to form around him had been. "Do you want a hand up? I may be an ass, but I won't let a person just lay on the ground in pain."

A pained moan was the only answer forthcoming from the wreck on the floor. Without waiting for anymore of a response, Alpha lifted the man up and carried him upstairs to where he hoped there would be a couch. After laying the billionaire on said furniture, Alpha went about to see what was there to be seen, fiddle with anything that caught his attention, and see if he could scrounge up a good meal.

About an hour later, Vlad came to and shot up. The last thing he remembered was an intruder in his house who, after having insulted him into a blind rage, had seen him try to transform. Such a person could not be allowed to live. It was then that he noticed said intruder sitting in _his _recliner, eating _his_ food.

"Oh, I see you are awake now, Vlad, did you have a pleasant nap?" Alpha asked with a sickly sweet voice.

Vlad attempted to stand up to yell at Alpha but could only manage to sit up the rest of the way. "You! How dare you! You invade my home, insult me, and now you have the audacity to just sit there and eat my food!" Vlad yelled at the only other occupant in the room.

"I made you a sandwich, too, you know, thought you might be hungry when you woke up." Alpha said, finishing up the last of his sandwich.

Vlad looked down and saw that there was in fact a sandwich sitting in front of him, but more importantly, that the Specter Deflector had been taken off of him. With an evil grin on his face, he transformed into Plasmius in all his ghostly glory, and said to the man sitting in front of him, "You are going to regret ever mocking me, boy."

Alpha just said, "John," before making a show of picking something out of his teeth and not looking the least bit impressed with the transformation that his "host" had just gone through.

Vlad adopted a confused look on his face before asking, "What?"

"John, that's my name, not boy. Heck, I am probably older than you, now that I think about it," Alpha answered.

After taking a moment to gather himself, Vlad continued, "No matter, for after today, you shall be no one." With that, the half-ghost lunged at the man sitting in his favorite chair, intending to strangle the life out him, only to be intercepted mid-air by a metal gauntlet hitting him in the face, courtesy of a halfhearted back hand given to him by the now transformed Alpha.

The now transformed Garu looked like a more humanoid werewolf. The fur and the teeth were there, but his hands were still humanoid (though with sharpened nails) and he lacked a snout, he was still wolf-like enough most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Alpha stood and placed the other gauntlet on his hand and said in a calm tone, "You know, you shouldn't leave such nice toys just laying about. Especially when the computer that has the files that explain how to use them is only double encrypted."

Vlad, after recovering from the shock of the blow, came back at the other demi-human, by shooting two blasts of energy from his hands at Alpha. Alpha merely side stepped the one and deflect the other with the gauntlet, destroying a mantle-piece in the background. As Vlad tried to fly past Alpha to take another swipe at him, Alpha caught him by the hair and the adjusted his grip so that he had a grip on the collar of his shirt and the belt of his pants, before bringing his knee up and attempting to slam Vlad right onto it. Vlad reacted in time to phase through the knee, avoiding a debilitating blow. Vlad used the momentum and went down through the floor before flying back up and attempting to uppercut Alpha, based on where he had been a moment a go, only to meet a gauntlet that had been waiting for him. Vlad flew back for a moment and wiped his face off with his cuff before creating a sword made of ectoplasm and charging the so far unscathed fighter. Vlad came in with a thrust that was deflected down and to the side shortly before the same hand came up and hit Vlad in the chin, knocking him onto his back.

Vlad leaned up and asked while panting heavily, "What do you want?"

Alpha responded, "For you to sit down, eat your sandwich, and talk like a normal person, or I can continue to beat the crap out of you THEN make you sit down, eat, and talk. The choice is yours Vlad."

Vlad saw the large wolf-man in front of him and decided that discretion might be the best course of action for right now and sat back down on his couch and picked up his sandwich before taking a bite. "Happy?" he asked the larger man with large, metal, anti-ghost devices.

"Yes I am," Alpha said with a smile on his face before sitting back down himself and propping his feet up on an ottoman. "Now that's better. Let me ask you, why are you so obsessed with this Maddie person and Danny?"

Vlad narrowed his eyes in suspicion and a slight mix of anger, _"This man is messing with affairs that are not his to trifle with." _After a moment, he answered, "That is an issue that you are not involved in, and to be honest, I don't know why you would or should be. That is my personal business and I wish it to remain so thank you very much."

Alpha shook his head before saying, "You lost that right when you started breaking the law to try and accomplish these goals Vlad. If you had just tried to woo her, or try to bribe her son, you are right, it would be right remaining between you. But the moment it started involving kidnapping and God knows how many other laws being broken, it became something that I take issue with."

"And who are you, exactly, to take issue with anything I do." Vlad snipped back. In his head though, his mind was racing, _'How does he know of my illegal activities? Nobody but the boy and his friends know of those dealings.'_

"I am just traveler with a sense of right, wrong, and the in between. Now stop dodging the question. I asked it very simply, and I feel that the least you can do after having tried to kill me twice now is explain to me why you are so obsessed. Though if you are feeling particularly generous, why don't we go back farther to what I assume is the root problem here, the day you became a half-ghost." Alpha finished a satisfied smirk on his face. Vlad really had to think of a better form of encryption than what he was currently using on his journal.

Vlad shot him a dirty look before sighing and relenting. "It started back when I was in college..."


	3. Friendships are Complicated

For the next two hours, Vlad and Alpha talked back and forth, Alpha giving his insight when appropriate and actually telling Vlad about himself at one point, explaining how he had been in high school himself when he first learned that he could become a wolf-man and how he had handled it in his own way. Vlad even laughed a few times as John explained to him some of the pranks he had pulled in the first couple of months to keep himself from mentally breaking down. Though surprisingly (or not), Vlad truly started taking a shine to the crazy Garu in front of him after be broke down and admitted that he loved football, and only stopped playing out of fear of hurting the other players with his above human strength.

Vlad was, at this point, feeling fairly comfortable in the presence of this no longer stranger and couldn't help be slightly amazed at how hard it was to stay mad at this person. "Now, maybe you could tell me why you started tearing me a new one when you first showed up."

John laughed and said, "That? That was my way of getting you to attack me so that you could let out some of your rage, and guess what? It worked!"

Vlad chuckled and replied, "I supposed it did." There was a comfortable silence for a moment before Vlad spoke back up, "I do apologize for that, though."

"No problem," was the easy response. After that, there was an almost awkward silence before Alpha said, "You know, the whole reason that you have this problem is because you have a problem with letting go, right? Don't get me wrong, the whole mini-ghost-portal thing didn't help, as it is something you should be mad about, but this all stems from the fact that you can't let go of a petty grudge."

Vlad said with a hint of steel in his voice, "It isn't petty."

"Yes it is, it was over twenty years ago, done by a man who would sooner throw himself in front of a bus that willingly hurt you, on accident. Ask yourself, if Jack had been able to switch places with you and be the one that got blasted, would he have? Or better yet, even after all these years of you being cold and distant towards him, would he still do it now given the chance?"

Vlad had the decency to look away at the implications of those questions.

John continued inexorably. "And come on, be honest with yourself, you don't really love Maddie. She was a school boy crush that got stolen from you, and since you were already angry at Jack you allowed it to compound. Had the accident never occurred, you probably would have been at the wedding yourself as the best man, slightly heart broken maybe, but that would have paled in comparison to how happy you would have been at seeing two of your closest friends at the happiest in their lives."

Vlad was now slightly sulking on his couch, feeling equal parts remorseful and guilty.

John let that sink for a moment before finishing, "Now, that feeling you have right now? That's something I would assume you want to avoid in the future, so ask yourself, how can you avoid that? And while you think about that, I am going to go and take a nap." With that, John became almost completely wolf like and curled up next to the fire place like a family dog might on a cold winter's night.

Vlad sat on his couch for hours that night, thinking about his life and what he was doing, until late in the night. He transformed and went for a fly to clear his mind.


	4. Just a little fun

The next day, Vlad trudged into his kitchen to make himself something to eat, only to find his "guest" cooking a large quantity of eggs for himself. The half-ghost only spent enough time to glare at the man in his kitchen before heading towards the coffee pot and turning it on.

After a few moments of silence, save for the sounds of food cooking, Vlad said, "I expect you to be out of my home before noon."

John looked to him and asked, "Really? And here I was, thinking that we had made good progress."

Scowling, the billionaire said, "I don't care what you thought, you are intruding upon my property and time and I will not have anymore of it. I want you gone as soon as you are done eating."

Still confused, John quickly finished cooking and eating his meal. Once that was done, he placed the plates in the sink and showed himself out. Only later would Vlad realize that he was now missing ghost devices.

Several days later, John found himself at the city limits of Amitty Park. A little worse for wear and extremely tired, he let his nose lead him to the nearest source of fast food in hope of a cheap meal.

After a short walk, he found himself at a place called "The Nasty Burger" and walked in, despite his misgivings at the name of the burger joint. He looked around the restaurant while he waited to make his order and saw that a vast majority of the customers appeared to be high school students. He pulled out his wallet and counted out how much he had left. After a moment's calculation, he realized that he was going to have to sell some of his stuff or get a job fast unless he wanted to be living out on the streets for the duration of his stay in this dimension. He sighed before walking the rest of the way up to the counter and ordering his food.

Once he was seated and eating his food, he sniffed an odd smell, similar to one he had been smelling a lot lately. After a moment of thought, he realized that it smelt like ectoplasm, like a ghost would have, similar to the smell Vlad was giving off. He looked around for a moment and tried to find the source of the smell. After a moment, he no longer had to look, as several people started screaming and yelling, "Ghost!" as they started to run away.

Alpha was about to get up and fight what looked like a factory worker, when a teenager with snow white hair and glowing green eyes flew through one of the walls and rammed right into the ghost that was calling himself "The Box Ghost." With the situation seemingly under control, Alpha sat back down and continued to eat his burgers.

The ghost boy seemed to have fun while beating the snot out of the self proclaimed Box Ghost and there was no problem with this until eventually one of his punches sent the Box Ghost across the table where Alpha was still eating and knocked over all of his food.

Danny had the Box Ghost in hand and said, "Well, it was nice to have my weekly venting, but it's time for you to go into theTthermos and back to the Ghost Zone with you."

The Box Ghost responded, "You might have defeated me today Ghost Boy, but I will return with my cubic container based ter-!" his voice was cut off as both of them were grabbed by their scruffs by metal gauntlets.

"Boys, I can appreciate having a fun time with a little bit of rough housing, but you went too far the moment that you ruined my lunch." He then made sure that they were able to see his food strewn across the floor. "Now, who is going to pay for me to get a new meal, eh?"

Danny tried to phase through the gauntlets until he noticed the familiar design. _"Holy crud, those look like my parent's Ghost Gauntlets. Where did he get them from?"_

Alpha then asked, anger clear in his voice, "Well?"

"I am the Box Ghost, I will not be intimidated by a mere human like you!" the Box Ghost said as he was still trying to escape the gauntlet.

"Oh, is that how you feel?" was the only warning the Box Ghost got before he found himself being dished out a beating by a very cranky and hungry man.

While this was happening, Danny just floated there for a moment while the Box Ghost took his beating, unable to move due to the shock of what this guy was doing to a ghost with seemingly no effort. He debated flying away while the man was occupied after he dropped him, but decided that that might just make him angrier.

Once Alpha was done, the Box Ghost was laying on the floor sucking his thumb while in the fetal position. Turning towards Danny, he asked, "Now are you going to be next or what?"

Danny panicked for a moment before saying, "I don't have any money! Look, no pockets!" As he demonstrated the lack of way to keep money on himself.

Alpha glared at him for a moment before saying, "Clean the mess up on your way out." He looked at his food strewn upon the floor for a moment, "And throw out my food on the floor while your at it." With that, he walked away grumbling.

Danny does as he was instructed, still slightly shaken from the human that had beat the pulp out of a ghost with seemingly no effort. After that, he met back up with Sam and Tucker and said to them, "Guys, I think we might have a problem." He then explained to them what just happened in the Nasty Burger.


	5. Alpha's Invasion

"So, let me get this straight. Some guy with Ghost Gauntlets that looked like your parents' showed up out of nowhere, manhandled you and the Box Ghost, and then proceeded to beat him to a pulp, all over a ruined lunch?" Asked the goth teenager Sam, one of Danny's two best friends.

"Sam, I think you're focusing on the wrong thing," Tucker, Danny's other friend said.

"Thanks Tuck, at least somebody-" Danny started to say.

"Yeah, you should be focusing on the fact that he made Danny clean up the mess after he did it," Tucker said while him and Sam started laughing.

Danny scowled at them for a moment before saying, "Ha, ha, ha, very funny guys. Seriously, this could be a problem guys. Could you imagine what would happen if a competent ghost hunter started hanging out around here?"

Sam pointed out the fact that, "But Danny, if he were a ghost hunter, why did he let the two of you go after lecturing you like Mr. Lancer?"

Growling in frustration he answered, "I don't know, maybe he is like Skulker and wants to make a game of it? It doesn't make sense. I mean who would let a ghost go after they catch them?"

"Dude, you're over-thinking this. He let you go and you should just consider yourself lucky, to be honest," Tucker added in.

"Yeah, your probably right." Danny relented.

A little less than a block away, John was listening to the conversation while doing his best to not be noticed. Thankfully, he was able to hear the entire conversation from his position, thanks to his keen senses. He thought to himself for a moment before a plan to get close to Daniel popped into his mind. After he realized he was scheming though, he cursed under his breath and mumbled, "Damn it, I am starting to think like a villain." With that, he started to gather information to make his plan a reality.

The school week started all too soon for Danny and his friends as they trudged towards Casper High after a tiresome weekend of ghost hunting.

Danny asked his friends, "Is it just me, or was this weekend really bad?"

Sam responded, "I don't think it was that bad. That is, if you ignore all the ghost hunting we had to do."

"It _was_ horrible. You had to fight Technus, and Skulker. Not to mention that the Box Ghost had to bug you almost every single hour," Tucker added in.

"Okay, maybe it was bad," Sam admitted.

"Whatever, lets just get this day over with so we can all go home and crash," Danny said in an irate voice.

"Amen to that." Tucker said.

Mr. Lancer stood at the front of the room, holding a book. "Good morning class. Today, you shall be starting Mary Shelley's _Frankenstein._" A collective groan was heard throughout the class. After glaring at the students for a moment, he continued. "But, I will not be the one reading it with you."

Confused murmuring spread across the room. "No, on the principal's orders, we will be giving a 'special case' on-the-job training to a student teacher," he explained with air quotes accentuating the words "special case."

"Now, I would appreciate if you welcomed your new student teacher, Mr. Varggrimr."

As the introduction ended, there was a pregnant silence as everybody waited for this new teacher. Mr. Lancer waited for a moment before opening the door, looking for his missing charge, only to find him half-way down the hall at a water fountain. "Mr. Varggrimr, would you be so kind as to join us?"

The person identified as Mr. Varggrimr, usually known as John or, to those who truly knew him, Alpha, quickly finished getting his drink before jogging back to the classroom and walking in. "Sorry everybody, just got a little thirsty waiting to be introduced," he said with a giant grin on his face that made it painfully clear that he was anything but sorry.

"Now, as Mr. Lancer already told you, my name is Mr. Varggrimr, but you may call me Mr. V if you prefer. As he also mentioned, we will begin reading _Frankenstein_ today. Before we begin, do you guys have any questions for me, be it about myself or the book?"

"Yeah, what makes you a 'special case'?" asked a large student in a red letterman jacket near the back of the class.

"Well, Mr. Baxter, that would be because I have taken almost none of the normally required courses in order to become a teacher. That being said, I would like it if you would be so kind as to raise your hand next time."

Sam raised her hand and waited for the student teacher to prompt her to ask her question. "Then why are they letting you be a student teacher?"

It was at this point that Danny started to notice something. If the man in the front of the room were to let his facial hair grow out a little, replace the button down and khakis with a t-shirt and cargo pants and it looked a lot like...

"Well Ms. Manson, I will answer your question with a question. How many of you were at the Nasty Burger on Friday afternoon when the Box Ghost attacked?" About half of the class raised their hands, including Alpha himself.

"Well, for those of you had stuck around till the fight was over, you would have seen me. I was the one that beat the ectoplasm out of the Box Ghost and told the Ghost Boy to clean up the mess they made. Though he did miss a spot."

Towards the end, Danny could have sworn that the man had been looking directly at him. "As such, I have made an arrangement with the school board that I shall be working here until further notice, so long as I can prove that I am able to handle the ghostly threat and any other duties that they assign to me."

"So what, you're some kind of hot shot ghost hunter then?" Dash asked without raising his hand again.

"I wouldn't say so. Also, I asked you before and I will ask you again, raise your hand before speaking Mr. Baxter." Mr. Varggrimr said with a slightly cold tone.

Dash raised his hand this time. "Then what would you call yourself?"

After stopping for a moment and thinking, Alpha responded, "A person who can do what needs to be done."

Dash pursed his lips and nodded, thinking, 'Finally! Here's a guy who's here to help Danny Phantom. I'm not sure what he's gonna do, but anyone who is here to help our hero is cool with me.' 

Valerie's eyes gleamed with satisfaction, as she thought, 'Yes! This is a guy who is here to help take down that ghost scum, Danny Phantom. I look forward to seeing what he's up to, but Mr. V has my support!' 

Sam narrowed her eyes, thinking, 'What needs to be done, huh? According to who? I don't know who he thinks he is, but if he's here to hurt Danny, he may find himself missing body parts he'll miss later.' 

Tucker cocked his head, as he considered. 'What needs to be done… This has serious potential for helping Danny. But just in case… Let's not tick off Mr. V. Or at least, let's try to not get CAUGHT by Mr. V.'

Danny closed his eyes. 'What needs to be done? I have a bad feeling about this.' 

"Now I feel that's enough questions. Let's get started." He started handing out copies of _Frankenstein._ "Now, while I am handing out the books why don't we go over what you think you already know about Doctor Frankenstein and his monster."

"Guys, that was him, that was guy that beat the crap out of the Box Ghost!" a frantic Danny told Sam and Tucker later that day at lunch.

"No kidding, he more or less said as much in class." Tucker said with his mouth full.

"That means that you are going to have to be a little bit more careful around school now, is all," Sam pointed out.

"I wonder if he could have taken the Box Ghost on or caught me like he did if we had actually noticed him?" Danny wondered out loud.

"Mr. Fenton."

Danny quickly turned around to see the person they had just been talking about beckoning him to come to him from across the cafeteria. He quickly but nervously made his way over to the new staff member before asking, "Yes Mr. V?"

"I need you to let your parents know I will be stopping by their house today at around five. This is not at all related to your school work, so do not worry. I need to discuss something with them regarding the gauntlets I have been using to apprehend ghosts with. Would you pass the word onto them, and if they are unable to make time, please have them call my number," the teacher elaborated as he handed Danny a note with his cell number on it. He then walked away leaving Danny to his own devices.

Danny just stood there for a moment in complete horror before saying to himself, "I am so dead.."


	6. Try Using Your Words

Danny fidgeted in the living room as he waited for his impending doom, Mr. V, to arrive.

His parents had no problems with the new student teacher coming over once Jazz had mentioned that there was a rumor going around school that he, too, was a ghost hunter. As soon as that had been mentioned, Maddie and Jack had immediately set forth to impress. Maddie had prepared tea and cookies, and Jack put away any and all ghost inventions that were spread across the living room and kitchen.

At about five minutes before the promised time, the door bell rang. Maddie opened the front door and smiled at their guest, "Welcome Mr. Varggrimr, please, come in."

"Thank you Mrs. Fenton, but please, call me John. I honestly hate being called a mister, it makes me feel old," was the easy response from John as he walked in.

"Then please, call me Maddie." Maddie motioned to her family as she introduced them. "You already know Danny, this is my husband Jack, and this is our daughter Jazz."

Jack stood up and took John's hand in his own, "Put it there, it's great to meet another ghost hunter." Maddie just rolled her eyes at Jack's enthusiasm, long since used to it.

"Thank you, I suppose?" John asked, slightly shocked by Jack's energy. "Well, the reason I am here is thankfully not related to Danny directly, so I felt I should just throw that out there and dispel any worries you might have had."

"Great to know. So, why are you here then?" Jack asked.

"Simple, to exchange knowledge so that we will hopefully be able to help each other," John said with a smile. "For example, the fact that your technology has been leaked somehow." With that, he took his bag off of his shoulder and pulled the Ghost Gauntlets out of them before handing them to Jack. "These should look familiar to you. I found them in a demolished laboratory in Wisconsin."

After studying them for a moment Jack said, "These look a lot like my Fenton Ghost Gloves, but these seem to have been tweaked a little bit."

"Well, those are what I have been using in order to fight ghosts. Well, that and some good old fighter's know how." John said as he watched the Fentons look over the pilfered goods from Vlad's lab. "That being said, if you don't mind, I was wondering if I would be able to buy, or at the least, borrow some of your ghost hunting weaponry. If I am to keep Casper High from being overrun by ghosts, I will need all of the assistance I can get."

Jack answered with all the enthusiasm he normally has with anything relating to ghost hunting, "Sure, not a problem, why don't we head on down to the lab and see what we can find you."

As Jack dragged his new "friend" down to the basement, with Maddie in tow, Danny and Jazz sat in the living room, slightly confused. Danny eventually broke the silence and asked his sister, "Did my teacher just become Dad's new best friend?"

"Sounds like it, little brother." Jazz stood up and headed to her room. "I'm going to go do homework now. If I were you, I would go down there and do damage control before things get out of hand." She was almost out of sight when she added, "And Danny, please be careful."

Danny quickly rushed to the basement and sneaked down as much as he could without being noticed. Which meant he got a full foot into view before his teacher said, "Oh, Danny, are you interested in ghost hunting, too? Come on over, I was just telling your parents about something I noticed with ghosts."

Danny froze up for a moment upon realizing he had been noticed, and joined the three adults in the room near the Fenton Portal.

Jack beamed at his son and asked, "Finally interested in the family business, eh, sport? John was just explaining this crazy idea he has about ghosts."

John cut in and said, "I am telling you Jack, it is not crazy, ghosts really do have motivations beyond terrorizing people."

Jack scoffed and replied, "Like what?"

After thinking for a moment, John responded, "Let's see, going off of ghosts that you have encountered in the past, there is the one who calls himself "The Box Ghost." If I had to guess, he doesn't scare for the sake of it, so much as how he is depressed. I mean look at him. By his attire, it is clear that he was working in some dead end blue collar job when he died, and when he died, he had a similar issue, but instead of just being stuck at a dead end job, he ended up being a laughably weak ghost. Clearly he has some form of inferiority complex and is just trying to prove, to himself if nothing else, that he is important and looking to gain acknowledgment. Then there is the hunter ghost that I have heard about. He clearly lives for the thrill of the hunt. He doesn't care about scaring humans, as far as I have heard, and it only really has happened when he was in pursuit of his target." John stopped for a moment to let the Fentons to process the idea that had just been presented in front of them.

Maddie was seeing the logic behind the statements and thought that there could be some validity to John's theory.

Jack was thinking about it and trying to think of a reason for the logic to be flawed, but finding none, it challenged many of his preconceptions about ghosts.

Danny, on the other hand was kind of happy that at least one person in the world besides his friends and sister that knew not all ghosts were bad. After all, he didn't really want the Dairy King or other non-violent ghosts like him to be hurt if it could be avoided.

Taking a deep breath, the teacher continued, "And then there is the Ghost Boy." At the mention of that specific ghost, everybody in the room's eyes were immediately on John. "I understand you have, for lack of a better term, a stressed relationship with this particular ghost. I asked for all records of the incidents involving the Ghost Boy and could come to only one conclusion, and that is that the boy has a hero complex so large it makes Amity Park itself seem small."

"Hero complex? He has fought us several times since he has shown up!" Jack said in borderline anger.

"Yes, I looked into that. Each and every time, you started the conflict with him, with the exception of a few times. For example, when Maddie was attacked by him. I was able to find out through some digging that he thought she was possessed by a ghost at the time."

"How did you find that out?" Maddie asked.

"I asked everyone present at the event that I could find. Many said that they didn't recall the event, which tells me that they themselves were probably overshadowed at the time, and then many of them ran before he actually shot you. One person though was close enough to him at the time though to hear him mention something about not wanting to shoot you, but it being the only way. From the fact that almost everybody else was possessed at the time, this leads me to believe that he mistakenly assumed you were possessed at the time and was trying to eliminate a possible threat to him getting rid of all of the other ghosts in city hall."

Maddie though about it for a moment before responding, "That does make sense, I suppose. But what about when he went on a crime spree?"

Danny flinched at the mention of those incidents, which didn't go unnoticed by the teacher, who then responded, "I am not one-hundred percent sure, but I think it had something to do with Circus Gothica. His difference in behavior only lasted for the duration of the circus's stay in Amity Park, and once the circus disbanded, he never had behavior similar to it again. As I said, I am not sure, but I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt. I have looked over many reports of him, and since he started appearing, he has done almost nothing but fight ghosts that actually were doing harm to humans, and with the exception of collateral damage, and the few cases we already mentioned, he has done nothing to warrant hatred towards him. It is actually on my to-do list to attempt to arrange a sit down with him, to actually talk to him, and if he is on our side, to see if I can't get him to work with me instead of against me. So Jack, Maddie, will you humor this dreamer's dream and help me see if I'm right and that ghosts aren't just an embodiment of terror?" What Alpha didn't mention though, is that most of this information was actually just given to him by Clockwork and gotten through his own researching.

Maddie was thinking deeply while Jack asked the only question that really mattered to him, "If they are bad, do we still get to blast them?"

John gets a down right sinister grin on his face and responded, "Or bash, or smash, or slash to our heart's content, Jack. After all, if they aren't pulling any punches, why should we?"

Her mind made up, Maddie spoke up, "Let's give it a shot. After all, worst case scenario is that we just go back to what we were doing before, right Honey?" She asked looking to Jack.

"That's right. Now let's get John, here, suited up with some of our equipment and see if we can't finally put a stop to all these spooks raising a ruckus."

Danny decided to slip out the room while the ghost hunters had their fun. Besides, he had to call Sam and Tucker and see what they thought about all of this.


End file.
